They had more than a few things to get to, now that Things were Happening at an ever-increasing pace. A new Councilor to bring up to speed; plans to make and information to share; a question of how to deal with integrating new crew members into their plans... and Zetta for one was practically bursting at the binding to tell them a particularly juicy nugget of information.

(And, uh, after that whole unplanned fake traitor thing he'd pulled at Punishment, he owed them some explanations, but he didn't know that.)

Consequently, the Overlord had offered up his Fortress -- a blind spot in the City -- as the next meeting area, which he thought to be a fairly clever stroke of genius. How could it seem suspicious to meet at an extremely egotistical Councilor's home?

So the book sat in a comfy armchair which he'd had pulled up to the dining table he'd bought waaaaay back on XaXing, and waited for the meeting to come to order.

Despite the uproar that had taken place only a day earlier, it was all quiet at the Susono Inn. Well... mostly quiet, anyway. It was home to some of the most stubborn crew members on the ship, almost all of whom had gotten involved in the brawl with the Kessek.

Allenby's arm had been broken. Simon had taken a hard one directly to the ribs. Zouichi would probably take a week to get back to real fighting form.

And Howard... well, it would probably take Howard a while to recover from what had happened.

[Visitors welcome!]

Celena had been moving at a near non-stop pace for the last few weeks, when the shore leave had rocked around she had increased the pace again, dividing some of her time away from the reconstruction to collect a significant amount of supplies from the planet below as well as to monitor the situation with the potential rebellion.

Now however she was focused on the opportunity that she had been waiting for, the initiation of the Gateway network that would aid with transportation throughout the ship. At that current moment she looked over each of the ten gates that would form the initial network, checking over each gateway device in turn. Each device looking near identical to her initial Gateway pair, the smooth grey base plates inlaid with the crystals that would power them. The gate crystals of each spinning idly in a tight vertical circle above an indentation in the base plate below. To the right of each a holographic display panel projected from a raised pillar off to the side of the base showed the status of each of gate in question, and once connected would allow crew members to select the gate to which they wished to travel.

With checks underway she waited for others to show up and to wait for Rhiow, ready to assist with the construction of the Catenary should she be required.

(OOC: Feel free to come and have your character help out, or even watch or chat with Celena)

Rhiow was beginning to think that this mission was doomed to fail. Despite the fact that she'd been quietly following the Daligig ever since they'd been on board, she had yet to hear anything of real substance. Even when they didn't think they were in any danger of being overheard, they were remarkably tight-lipped.

Still, she continued in her mission despite how hopeless it seemed. She currently found herself near the site the Daligig had been working on for the past few weeks, rolling around in the middle of the hallway in an attempt to get to a very stubborn itch between her shoulderblades.

She had to be very careful not to speak Ailurin around the Daligig, knowing that Stacy would translate her words. So she had to string together a series of nonsense that would confuse the translators, purrs and small meows that didn't mean anything even in her native language.

Now she just had to hope none of the crew would show up and try to be social. Their visitors didn't think she was anything special, and she needed to keep it that way.

((OOC: The thread between her and the Daligig is closed. If any other characters come up and attempt to talk to her, she'll quickly inform them that they'll have to communicate telepathically or they'll blow her cover.))

Tarrant strode along the bank of the River, eyes trained on the invisible, delicate web of power that stretched out even to this remote location. He picked out eddies in the flow, interpreting minute fluctuations as an animal might discern a faint scent in the air or vibrations along the ground.

There was life here, yes. And the river should provide adequate housing and space. Combined with the equipment in the Castle, supplemented with supplies from the various shore leave planets...

He pulled out his datapad, slender fingers dancing along the screen -- rapidly charting out the flow of the water, the depth, the amount of shade. Yes, this might do quite nicely.

Marco was gone.

He'd found that out when he'd returned from the rather stressful (if successful) mission on Deepstar 7. No sign of him on the comms and he hadn't shown up at Cassie's house for a while. It was as if he'd just vanished. Or been repodded. Jake figured that was the more likely event, but it was still a bit disturbing to think about the other possibilities.

His best friend was gone, just like that. Even after the war, Marco had never been all that far away. Just a phone call and a drive. Even if Jake had never really talked about what bothered him. And here it was just as disturbing. If he couldn't stop the ship from taking people away, how could he lead? How could he protect people?

Jake sighed and tried to shake the thoughts out of his head. His fingers found a smooth pebble and after a moment of turning it over and over in his fingers, he sent it skipping across the surface of the river.

He really needed to find something to do.

They'd all had their fun, now the time had come to attend to business.

Having sent out word about it, the Council gathered, as was its wont, to conduct matters, make announcements, take inquiries, and generally govern things and so forth. All crew members were invited to attend, either to watch or to raise questions as they saw fit.

This meeting was now in session.

There was a lot of cleaning up to do after SHODAN and her robot armies had been defeated. Among the structural damage was parts of the Drunken Dragon Tavern: the store room and everything in it had been utterly destroyed, the pots that had rarely been used on-ship were strewn around the kitchen, and a couple of tables, one bench and a chair, and a portion of the stage needed repairs. The building next door that Kang used for half of his storage and called home had managed to escape relatively unscathed.

He had sustained some damage himself, with a few minor cuts and bruises, and a rough hole slightly larger than an orange missing from the membrane of his right wing. It hadn't healed completely yet, and the bandages didn't hide it very well at all.

He had personal matters to attend to before reconstruction could begin, though. Two draconians had been killed in the pod caverns, two that he'd known personally; they had served under him for over thirty years when he'd been Commander of the First Dragonarmy Engineering Regiment. Unlike the others that had been killed, there was nothing left of them. Vlemess, as a kapak, had melted into a pool of acid, and Urul the baaz had turned to stone, and then dust.

It was customary, because of the nature of draconian deaths, to simply place a headstone along with any personal possessions that could be salvaged. Sakura had helped Kang procure two suitable stones from the wreckage of the Great Wall, and he'd decided to place them in the little herb garden Kali had started before she'd gotten repodded (said garden hadn't been cared for since). It was visible from the tavern, and he felt that it was appropriate to have them near a piece of home.

He knelt down to clear a space on the north side of the garden, digging shallow holes for Urul's belt and one of Vlemess's bracers. He'd gotten lucky in finding their few possessions in the lockers.

[OOC: He invited/mentioned it to anyone that he counts as family or a friend, but it's cool for others to stop by too if they'd like. Threadjacking is also encouraged!]

Even if Kang hadn't already decided to stay by the tavern, he wouldn't have been able to get very far from it before running into hordes of robots. They'd moved into the City quick (or had they been there all along?), and several were making a beeline that way, from all directions in an attempt to completely surround it, their intentions clear.

Cursing, he rushed over to the other building, where he happened to live, to grab his armor and weapons. He'd gotten out of the habit of carrying more than his dagger when he was in the tavern itself; that was something that was no longer going to happen. By the time he got back downstairs, he could already hear their approach, and he hoped that others would show soon. It was one of the slow hours, with little to no patrons.

[Planning thread is here.]

This ship or whatever it was called was too big. That much Alanna had decided, having already gotten lost more times then her pride would let her admit. Big and strange were the best words that she could come up with to describe it, but it was not actually unpleasant so far. It could be a bit lonely at times without her friends, but she had her brother here and that was something to cherish in itself. She comforted herself with the thought that her friends were sleeping safely in that cavern where she'd woken up though. If they woke up, then she'd be glad to see them. If they did not, then she'd see them when this war was done and their world restored. And that was what she believed. She didn't see any point in dwelling on the negative. This was hardly the first time that she'd gone traveling without her friends, although... it was admittedly the first time she'd done so when not on their world anymore.

She sighed as she entered the next room, her thoughts drifting to the palace before she could stop them. In her mind's eye, she could picture the beautifully decorated walls of the castle and how comfortable she felt when there, assuming that she didn't need to attend any silly formal functions. Looking back on it now, it was funny to think that she hadn't always felt that way, but she supposed that was what happened when you spent so long living and working in one spot surrounding by people that you cared for deeply. It had been her home for years and she still thought of that way for the most part.

Looking around the room, it seemed to Alanna that could physically see the castle walls around her. It was kind of a surprise as her imagination was not usually so vivid, but it wasn't as though...

Then she froze and really stared at one of the walls. That didn't look like a figment of her imagination. It looked real, but that wasn't possible. The palace had been destroyed along with Tortall. She stepped closer and reached out her hand to touch the wall, jerking it back quickly when her hand hit what felt like a solid wall, her other hand flying to the Goddess' token around her neck. What type of sorcery was this? She clutched the ember stone tightly as she looked for signs of magic, but her amulet revealed nothing. Was this not caused by magic then or was it just something that her amulet couldn't detect? It didn't usually fail to react.

With her mind now cleared of all thoughts of anything except the strange things going on in this room, the image of the palace faded away, leaving Alanna with little more then confusion. She reached for her Gift and tried to use it to investigate the room, but she found nothing with it. That was not encouraging.

What had just happened? Why had the palace appeared out of nowhere like that? It obviously hadn't been real given that it was gone now. Not only had it appeared, but it had appeared right when she'd been thinking of it.

That thought caused her to pause. From what she'd learned so far, the ship that they were living on was alive in some sense of the word at least and that it had some very unusual capabilities. Had it... done that? Could it do that? It was hard to believe that it was a coincidence that the castle had appeared just when she'd been thinking of it.

She tried again, this time picturing Pirate's Swoop in her mind as she'd last seen it. Sure enough it appeared just as she'd remembered it. The tall walls, although still in the process of being redone since she and George had moved in, were beautiful and the image of her home managed to put a smile on Alanna's face.

As she walked the halls of the Swoop though, the smile faded some. Being able to see her home was nice, but it was the people who really made it home. She prevented her thoughts of drifting to George though, not sure what would happen if she wished to see him. There was no doubt that she would love to see George, but she wanted to see the real him and not some imitation, no matter how real whatever controlled this room could make him seem.

Still, she'd enjoy what she could get from the experience and if this was the only way to see her home then so be it. Her mind turned again, this time picturing the Bloody Hawk village in her mind, the Great Southern Desert all around them.

Dean had switched off on tracking the Dalgig for the time being, and other Security were keeping an eye to the other visitors. Only stopped by the Brig for some prisoners to get their walking papers.

He stopped by the Observation Deck, but there was nobody there to see. Why would there be? Mom and Dad were long gone, couldn't save Adam. Cas wasn't around anymore either. Would have been good seeing Bobby, or maybe even Ellen or Jo, but of course, never get that lucky. Old Winchester luck again, screwed, blue and tattooed.

He decided to head down to the Sensoriums. Part of the reason he wanted to compile information on the all of the past threats to the Ship was to set up a training program to develop strategy, and best methods for taking them out. Right now, he got some details on the giant bugs that some of the oldest crew dealt with. Which meant busy pumping shotgun shells into one. His eyes were singularly focused, his expression hardened.

This was easier. Just focus on doing his job, don't bother with any of that other crap. Who needed it? Certainly not him.

 As the battle raged on far away on Lirath, the crew that remained on Balisair faced a different challenge.

The planet itself was bleak and simple, a rugged landscape covered with sparse forests. The colony itself wasn't very large, but a massive refugee camp was already being set up outside the walls. Numerous tents were already filling up with wounded and scared refugees, and more were coming. They would need help to take all of them in.

Numerous evacuation ships, still scarred from their close calls back at Lirath, were pouring in from the Bleed-Gate that appeared in orbit above the colony, bringing even more refugees with them.

On top of all this, there was yet another problem: Some of the colonists, concerned the sudden influx of refugees would tax the small colony's already small reserve of supplies, were holding back critical supplies the refugee camp needed. It would take someone to convince them to help out for the greater good to get them to part with these supplies.

The crew had their work cut out for them.

[ooc: Open!]

Taking some time from other projects, Celena had once more brought down her Paired Gate device down to the park in an attempt to work on a number of issues of the operation of the device while in the Bleed. After all if a stable gate could be established, even for short periods of time, it could make for quick travel about the city and about the ship in general.

Thus in her usual draconic form she had set herself before the primary end of the gate device in the middle of a large clearing in the park, with the secondary portion of the device not a hundred feet away. After some time in pondering the problem she had decided to take a break from her work. Locking the device down she stretched herself out and padded away to wander the park for a short while before taking off to stretch her wings. Keeping her general flight path around the vicinity of the park itself.

[OOC: Feel free to run into her at any point, whether while she's working on the device, wandering the park or even flying around overhead!]

Its time to unwind, relax and receive news of home. A pod pop occurred while some were on a mission and it's time to meet up with new friends, drink well with old, and relax.The Drunken Dragon has opened its doors and stands ready and willing to assist in forgetting the trials those on the mission experienced.




OOC: If you want a specific barmaid, just put their name in the subject. Otherwise, enjoy, intermingle and do as you like.

Mulder was pretty certain that no matter how long he stayed here, there was going to be no getting acclimated to the fact that he was living out his wildest fantasies, even when those fantasies were sobered by the conditions that had led to his being on this ship in the first place.  If there was one thing that defined him, it was his will to believe in the impossible, and so he'd hardened his resolve already towards accepting that Scully, along with others from his world, were encased in one of those pods below.  Still alive.  Once he'd accepted that, it'd been easier to functionally react to his situation.  

And his first reaction had been to explore every inch of the ship open to him.  Of course, that ended up being more than he could have imagined.  The ship was huge and trying to wrap his head around the dimensions of the thing carrying them proved mind-boggling.  It hit him most fully when he made his way down to Level 4 to explore the rumored 'City', and found himself blinking up into the 'sun' set there in a sky that looked distinctly like the one back on Earth.  His jaw dropped for a moment, but he reasoned, it couldn't be real.  

And if the Daligig were able to manufacture technological illusions on that scale, he had no doubt that there were other things on this ship that weren't what they appeared to be.


[ooc;  So very open, for any kind of interaction.  Mulder can be wherever in the City you want, as he's exploring, so just specify in the subject line or tag, please!  Open to multiple threads, or even threads with multiple muses - jack away.  AIM > thegreatmuldini  if you want to chat about it.]

So many people had recommended the Media Library to Soren that it ended up being one of the first locations on-ship that he paid a visit to. As promised, there was plenty of information to be found in convenient, electronic format.

Convenient for everyone who wasn't essentially from a medieval time period and thus had no framework for understanding computers, let along databases.

Losing patience, Soren began mashing the controls on some kind of instrument panel, and was rewarded with a moving picture featuring humans being menaced by floating tin plates, a woman singing about less-than-optimal romantic encounters, and some sort of storybook featuring a blue-skinned 'space explorer' and his evil nemesis (both with rather improbable hair).

"Infernal machine," he hissed, hitting the table with one small, bony magefist. "I'll show you a bad romance."

As far as he was concerned, the future should be destroyed. With fire.

Arhu was tired of having those empty moments sitting at the back of his mind. Maybe it didn't bother others on the ship, but he was a wizard - if he didn't know exactly who he was, then his Name wasn't right, and his magic would define him as something other than what he was. If you said your name wrong in a spell, then that would become your name, and whatever was said wrong would become true.

So the knowledge that he didn't know something was really, really important. But even more than that...

He wanted to find out what had happened to him, and whether his sister was alright. And Urruah, too.

Arhu paged through his Omnicomm to send a message, and then headed for the Sensoriums. He'd find the answers one way or another, if he had to send his Eye straight into Stacy's programmed mind to do it.

It hadn't been long since he'd received the news of his success in obtaining the open spot in the council. He had little doubt that there had been a close running between he and at least one of the others, if their time on the ship and popularity were anything to go by. Nevertheless he had been voted in and he intended to do what he did best. If he could turn Sanction from a down trodden slave ridden city to the prosperous city it was before he'd been brought here, he could help this ship work for the better. He no intentions of letting the crew down.

As he had told Kang over the omnicomms he could hardly refuse a celebratory drink or two, to do so would be rude after all. A good drink on such an occasion couldn't hurt and so he was once more at the door to the Drunken dragon. Pausing for but a moment at the threshold of the door, schooling his thoughts before striding to meet with his fellow councilor, governor and the only other from Krynn. A draconian and a dragon on the same council, even if no one knew of it. They would know in time though, Kang would know in time, but for now he pushed that thought to the back of his mind, tonight was meant to be celebratory night after all.

Le Prefecture was currently empty and quiet, save for the projection of one blonde princess that was simply waiting. Waiting for the other members of the council and appointed leaders of the ship to arrive. They had taken care of the Council's open house, and she had made sure to attend even though she had still been recovering. But it was important to be there, and it was even more important to be where she was now immediately after they finished that. Her and Setsuna's encounter with the Ohm had been quite the experience. And though they were still in the darkness when it came to understanding them completely, there were little hopes of light starting to shine in.

Once the rest of the crew arrived, she'd begin. The meeting repeating itself over and over again in her head.

Despite Superman's suddenly odd penchant for sporting mullets, it was time to have a heart-to-heart chat... between the Council and the rest of the crew. If there was some sort of bond between them and the crew that needed to be made, it needed to be done without hiding behind Omnicomms and other decisions.

Thus, the Council was gathered within La Prefecture and everyone was welcome to come in and make their concerns, questions, complaints and what have you known. Care to join us?

(OoC: This is open to everybody and everyone! Also, don't wait for the Council to address you guys! If your characters have concerns, start up a subthread and we'll gladly tag it!)